High schools plan to boost achievement

Saturday

Oct 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa city school system has designed two plans to improve student academic performance at the system’s three high schools. The plans have already been approved by the board, and implementation will begin immediately.

By Jamon SmithStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa city school system has designed two plans to improve student academic performance at the system’s three high schools. The plans have already been approved by the board, and implementation will begin immediately.Elisabeth Davis, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the school system, said Northridge High School will add an academy for freshmen, conduct an academic audit and change from a four-period schedule to a eight-period schedule.Central and Paul W. Bryant high schools are using the 90/90/90 School Improvement Process, which will require closer monitoring of student academic progress and coaching from consultants to ensure that teachers are using effective instruction methods.The improvement plans are required because the three high schools have failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress.AYP is a measurement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which requires states to create a report card that measures its public K-12 schools’ yearly progress in meeting standards in math and reading, as well as reaching target attendance and graduation rates.The three high schools are in school improvement status, which means they’ve failed to meet AYP standards for at least two years consecutively and are Title I schools.The 90/90/90 plan is based on research at schools where 90 percent of the students belong to a racial minority and 90 percent come from low-income families. The plan demonstrates how intensive support at those schools can result in 90 percent of its students meeting or exceeding academic standards.“Test scores and other indicators have shown that if you were a minority and from poverty, you weren’t going to do well,” said Emily Freeland, director of professional development for the Tuscaloosa City Schools.“This research (the 90/90/90 plan) was the first big study that said no, that’s not true,” she said. “We looked at this plan because when we looked at the demographics of the schools, they matched that, especially Central.”Ninety-nine percent of Central’s students are racial minorities, and about 80 percent of its students come from low-income families. Eighty percent of Paul W. Bryant’s students are racial minorities, and about 55 percent of its students come from low-income families.Though Central and Paul W. Bryant’s demographics don’t exactly match the 90/90/90 model, Freeland said the strategies shown in the research should work just as well for all students in those schools.About 65 percent of students at Northridge High School belong to a racial minority and about 45 percent are low-income, so Northridge’s administrators opted to take a different approach than the 90/90/90 model.Using Title I funds — extra money given to schools that have a poverty rate of at least 35 percent — to pay for it, Northridge will create an academy to help freshmen make the transition from middle school to high school with a curriculum to support it.“If students successfully transition to high school, they tend to do well,” Freeland said. “It’s been shown to be key in preventing dropouts.”Davis said an academic audit was conducted at Northridge last week. In the audit, 30 central office employees spent a week at Northridge. They examined how teachers taught and how students learned. They studied student performance and attendance figures. They also looked at how many minority and low-income students are in advanced classes and how many minority and low-income students have discipline issues. Administrators spent time in the classrooms, interviewed faculty, staff, students and parents, asking them to list the school’s strengths and weaknesses.“I walked in the hallways and lunchroom and got a lot of information from students,” Davis said. “We wanted to see what professional help and support needs to be given in what areas.”Davis said an academic audit was done at Central last year and it went well. She said one will be conducted at Paul W. Bryant in the spring.All three high schools have changed to an eight-period schedule this school year. Davis said the eighth period allows schools to provide help for students who need it or enrichment for students who don’t.Central is in School Improvement Year 3, and Paul W. Bryant and Northridge are in School Improvement Year 4.The Alabama Department of Education is developing its own standards of accountability to meet federal academic requirements that may replace AYP before the expiration of No Child Left Behind at the end of the 2013-14 school year.Even if AYP isn’t replaced, Central and Paul W. Bryant may have their AYP statuses restarted next year because the schools were recently given $1.4 million and $1 million School Improvement Grants, respectively.The School Improvement Grant is designed to improve academic performance at persistently low-achieving schools. The grant comes with several requirements, including a rule that a school must implement several changes to its staff and methods.Freeland said the money for the the 90/90/90 plan changes at Central and Paul W. Bryant will come from the School Improvement Grant.The 90/90/90 plan will require educators to constantly examine students at Central and Paul W. Bryant through periodic assessments that determine how proficient students are in the subject they’re studying. Freeland said these formative assessments will let teachers know what’s specifically needed to help students catch up. The assessments aren’t graded. They’re “temperature checks,” Freeland said.The plan also calls for extensive on-site professional development for teachers for 66 days. A team of education consultants from the Leadership and Learning Center in Englewood, Colo., will be sent to both schools and to coach teachers in the classroom on how to be more effective.Freeland said the consultants were picked to meet the specific needs of Central and Paul W. Bryant’s students and teachers. She said they’re experts in reading and math.“The schools that implemented the strategies of the 90/90/90 research saw huge gains and became 90/90/90 schools or 90/90/100 schools,” Freeland said.The 90/90/90 plan will only cost part of Central and Paul W. Bryant’s School Improvement Grant money. Freeland said the rest of the money will be used to hire technology coordinators to help implement technology initiatives at both schools, such as eReaders for every student instead of paper textbooks.The grant will also pay for additional curriculum specialists, math and reading coaches, parent involvement coordinators, social workers, counselors and a freshmen academy at each school.